Under lingering and scornful stares from his victim's family, a man admitted this afternoon he stabbed his estranged wife to death in her unincorporated Gretna apartment.

Don Jordan, 48, who relocated to West Jefferson from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received the maximum 40years in prison sentence for killing Ashley Ruffin on Nov. 28, 2006. The 35-year-old hairstylist was stabbed 19 times.

Jordan won't be eligible for parole until he is 82.

"That's good for you, you demon," a member of Ruffin's family yelled after 24th Judicial District Judge Joan Benge handed down the sentence.

Jordan disregarded a court-imposed protective order that barred him from being near Ruffin when he killed her in her Wall Boulevard apartment. In court documents, Ruffin alleged Jordan physically and mentally abused her, and yet she reconciled with him before leaving him again. Hours before her death, Jordan twice appeared at her job at an Algiers salon, a co-worker has said. Police were called, but Jordan was gone.

"My daughter loved you," her father John Ruffin testified. "She was crazy for you. ... I hope every day of your life you are tormented that God (does) not come to your relief."

"Why, Don?" Ruffin's mother Suzanne Offrey said in tearful testimony, clutching two framed photographs of her daughter, who left behind a child. "You didn't have to kill my only daughter. ... I hate you, hope you rot in jail. I trusted you with my daughter."

When Ruffin died, Jordan was on parole from an 18-year prison sentence after being convicted of forcible rape in 1993. That 1992 incident involved his ex-fiancee, who also had a protective order that barred him from contacting her.

After killing Ruffin, Jordan eluded police for almost a year, until he was arrested in Houston on Oct. 2. In February, a grand jury indicted Jordan with second-degree murder, a charge that carries a mandatory life sentence upon conviction.

Had the case gone to trial, Assistant District Attorney Jay Adair said he would have proved that Jordan killed Ruffin.

"Is that what you did, Mr. Jordan?" Benge asked the shackled, orange-clad defendant.

"Yes, ma'am," Jordan said.

Public defender Bill Doyle said Jordan regretted what happened. The attorney's comment prompted a swift reaction from Ruffin's family, some of whom shook their heads.

"We don't want to hear that," a woman said aloud.

Paul Purpura can be reached at ppurpura@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3791.